U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team named best in women's sports for 2001

After having been ranked 10th in the world prior to the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team finished a very credible fourth. Since then the team has been on a roll.
In July they qualified for the 2002 World Championships winning all three matches.

In August they traveled to China and won the gold medal at the 2001 FIVB (Federation Internationale de Volleyball) Grand Prix. In the process they defeated the Cuban Olympic gold medal team once, the Russian Olympic silver medal team three times and the Brazilian Olympic bronze medal team once. The U.S. Women last won this championship in 1995.

At the recent NORCECA the U.S. team took its first title since 1983 and in the process once again defeated the Cuban women twice. This win gained them an invitation to the 2001 World Grand Champions Cup competition which is scheduled for November 13-18 in Japan. They will be vying for US $1 million in prize money.

Their current world ranking according to FIVB is 5th but the ranking system takes into account junior championships as well as the 1998 World Championships and 1999 World Cup results. If only the points from the Olympic Games and Grand Prix were used, the U.S. with 120 would be ranked 3rd and only 15 points out of first place!

Based on their successes and continued improvement in 2001, Real Sports magazine will be including the team in a special year-end issue saluting the continued growth and success of women in sports.

The U.S. Women's National Team lives and trains at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. The team consists of seasoned veterans such as Tara Cross-Battle, age 33, and a three time Olympian and Danielle Scott, age 29, and a two-time Olympian as well as women still attending college such as Logan Tom, a member of the 2000 Olympic Team and a student at Stanford. The 2001 U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team is comprised of college graduates or members presently attending college.

Team Roster

#2 Scott, Danielle(Baton Rouge, La./Long Beach State)
#3 Campbell, Kelly (Newport Coast, Calif./Univ. of Colorado)
#4 Roberts, Benishe (Kent, Wash./Long Beach State)
#5 Sykora, Stacy (Burleson, Texas/Texas A&M)
#6 Bachman, Elisabeth (Lakeville, Minn./UCLA)
#7 Bown, Heather (Yorba Linda, Calif./Univ. of Hawaii)
#9 Crawford, Therese (Kalamazoo, Mich./Univ. of Hawaii)
#10 Branagh, Nicole (Orinda, Calif./Univ. of Minnesota)
#11 Ah Mow, Robyn (Honolulu, Hawaii/Univ. of Hawaii)
#13 Cross-Battle, Tara (Houston, Texas/Long Beach State)
#16 Noriega, Sarah (Ulysses, Kan./Loyola Marymount)
#17 Whitehead, Jennifer (Jenison, Mich./Univ. of Florida)

#1 Butler, Sarah (Amarillo, Texas/W. Texas A&M)
#8 Tagaloa, Charlene (Las Vegas, Nev./Brigham Young Univ.)
#15 Tom, Logan (Salt Lake City, Utah/Stanford Univ.)

Coaching Staff

Toshiaki Yoshida - Head Coach
Kevin Hambly - Assistant Coach
Tara Cross-Battle - Assistant Coach
Robyn Johnson - Technical Assistant

For more information, go to the USA Volleyball website.